News & Events

We are pleased to announce the award of our NHMRC-funded Partnership Project (APP1113851): Reducing vaccine preventable diseases in children: using national active hospital-based surveillance to evaluate and improve immunisation program performance.

This project is aimed at improving immunisation programs to most effectively and equitably prevent illness and death due to the two most prevalent vaccine preventable diseases in Australian children, influenza and pertussis.

Morbidity from influenza and pertussis remains a significant challenge. An average of 2,700 children are hospitalised from these diseases each year. Deaths also continue to occur from influenza and pertussis, even in previously healthy children and babies.

We will be undertaking a novel and systematic examination of how factors related to both the effectiveness and the uptake of vaccination contribute to controlling influenza and pertussis in Australian children.

This project expands upon our national partnership of major paediatric hospitals in Australia: the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS, www.paeds.edu.au) network. We have established PAEDS sites in the major paediatric hospitals in five states (NSW, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and Victoria), and will be adding a sixth site in Darwin in the Northern Territory. With total funding comprising of fifty-per cent support from the NHMRC and fifty-per cent from our funding partners, who are all relevant State and Territory and the Australian Government Departments of Health, our collaboration is well placed to conduct this cutting edge program-relevant research.

Our nationally representative team is comprised of immunisation and public health experts, epidemiologists and social scientists. Over the coming three years we will undertake a range of studies, including:

a) identifying in whom breakthrough disease occurs despite immunisation and why, and we will estimate vaccine effectiveness of new programs;

b) identify reasons for under or no-vaccination at the individual, community, system and policy levels; and

c) determine factors or gaps in immunisation policy and practice that can be changed to improve prevention of disease from influenza and pertussis in children.

2016 Influenza Vaccine Early Report: good safety profile in children

With winter coming soon, it’s time to remind parents and patients to be vaccinated against influenza now. Influenza is a viral respiratory illness that is responsible for thousands of children and adults of all ages each year being admitted to hospital in Australia.

Active vaccine safety surveillance is conducted nationally in young children to monitor for the type and rate of reactions to each year’s new influenza vaccine. This program is called AusVaxSafety*. As of mid-May 2016, the families of more than 1200 children aged 6 months to 5 years from more than 100 ‘sentinel’ locations across Australia have responded to SMS or email messages to give us feedback on how their child felt days after vaccination.

This is the first year that the new quadrivalent vaccines (containing 2 influenza A and 2 influenza B strains) are being provided under the National Immunisation Program.

Results of this surveillance indicate that the safety profile of the 2016 influenza vaccines in children is excellent and the type and rate of vaccine reactions is within usual limits. Only 9% of participants have reported any reaction. Reactions recorded have been mild and resolved within 1-2 days. The most commonly reported symptoms include tiredness, irritability, and pain, swelling or redness at the injection site. A fever was reported in less than 3% of children. A small proportion of children (1%) have sought medical attention for symptoms following immunisation, and these have generally not been directly related to vaccination.

No vaccine-attributable serious adverse events have been recorded for the patients in this program. It is also important to note that safety demonstrated in children provides assurance that the vaccine is safe among all age groups.

All Australians can benefit from receiving influenza vaccine. Across Australia, health departments, clinicians and other researchers are conducting ongoing surveillance activities to monitor vaccine uptake, safety and effectiveness, and influenza activity. The success of AusVaxSafety surveillance is due to the active engagement of the public whose participation allows for real-time feedback on the safety of each year’s influenza vaccine.

* AusVaxSafety surveillance is a collaborative initiative led by NCIRS and involves vaccine safety experts, state and territory public health systems, general practitioners and children’s hospitals across Australia. It is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health. AusVaxSafety partners with and makes use of several computer-based surveillance systems, Vaxtracker, SmartVax, and STARSS, which send SMSs or web-based surveys to parents and carers seeking information on how their child felt after receiving the influenza vaccine. Results from 2015 AusVaxSafety influenza surveillance are available here.

REGISTER NOW - Vaccines in Public Health Workshop 2016

This course is an elective within the Master of Public Health and Master of International Public Health programs at The University of Sydney. The course is available yearly to any health professional interested in vaccines and public health. Prior training or experience in epidemiology and/or biostatistics is recommended but not essential. Included in the course are interactive lectures, small group case studies on epidemiology, program implementation, Indigenous health, adverse events and public controversies presented by some of Australia’s leading researchers in immunisation.

The NCIRS Fact Sheet on HPV vaccination has been updated. The HPV Fact Sheet is also accompanied by a NCIRS Position Statement on HPV vaccination as well as a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document on the Quadrivalent Vaccine. Each of these documents is designed to include the most recent data available on HPV epidemiology as well as to address recently raised concerns about the HPV vaccine.

New study shows efficiency of the PAEDS Network

Mar 2016 - News

The Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) Network is an NCIRS initiative which conducts surveillance of serious childhood conditions, including vaccine-preventable diseases and markers for infectious diseases such as acute childhood encephalitis (inflammation and swelling of the brain). The effectiveness of the program has been acknowledged anecdotally, but has not been validated empirically — until now. A new study published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection has provided data and analysis demonstrating that PAEDS is an “efficient, sensitive and accurate surveillance mechanism for detecting cases of childhood encephalitis—including those associated with emerging infectious diseases”.

The study piloted active surveillance for suspected encephalitis from May to December 2013 at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW. For the study, suspected encephalitis in children was identified using a variety of methods: the PAEDS method (consisting of nurses actively screening children’s admission records); monitoring of cerebrospinal fluid microscopy records; magnetic resonance imaging reports; and pharmacy dispensing records. Out of the four methods, the PAEDS method was the most efficient and accurate mechanism for detecting suspected encephalitis.

NCIRS Polio Fact Sheet Updated

Feb 2016 - News

The NCIRS fact sheet on polio has been updated to include current data on polio epidemiology and to align with recommendations in The Australian Immunisation Handbook on the use of IPV-containing vaccines.

NCIRS's Gulam Khandaker selected for the Centre for Research Excellence - Cerebral Palsy Leaders Program 2016

Jan 2016 - News

NCIRS's Dr Gulam Khandaker has been selected for the Centre for Research Excellence - Cerebral Palsy Leaders Program, 2016. Twelve early career researchers from around Australia have been selected for a 1-year leadership/mentoring program. Congratulations go to Dr Khandaker for winning the award. (Dr Khandaker is pictured here at a free wheelchair distribution camp in a rural village in Bangladesh. Free wheelchairs are donated by Wheelchairs for Kids (WFK), an Australian philanthropic organisation.)

NCIRS A/Prof Nick Wood interviewed by ABC News

Jan 2016 - News

Associate Professor Nick Wood of NCIRS has commented on a recent study into attitudes of parents who avoid vaccinating their children. A/Prof Wood has suggested that promoting shame among parents who did not vaccinate was not an effective tactic to improve vaccination rates. He also emphasised that it was important to not 'lump-in' people who could not get their children vaccinated for logistical reasons with those who were ideologically opposed to vaccination.